Has anyone used a Sierra Ph 180 grain on African plains game? If so, how did it work?

My 300 win mag is more accurate with this bullet than anything I have tried so far but I wonder if its a little flimsy for Africa.

How accurate is the SPH vs say a Nosler AB? I think too many guys worry about super accuracy & give up bullet integrety. You will be hard pressed to take a shot longer than 300yds in Africa, and many will be under 100yds. Remember, anything you hit in Africa you pay for. You are paying 100s of dollars/day to hunt, you don't want to spend time tracking. Shots in Africa can be any angle, the classic broadside is maybe 50% of the time & you may only get one shot @ a trophy animal. Just things to think about.

I have shot deer with that bullet from a hot 30-06 load up close and it has a narrow window of use.

I think that the bullet could expand faster for light deer and I doubt that it will hold together if it hits big bones.

So I see your choices as either getting a premium bullet to shoot ok or get another rifle. Your talking Africa $$$$$ here.

Thanks for the opinions.

Northfork are my next best so I think I better stay with those.

I hate to give up the accuracy but would hate worse to have something run off wounded.

You can't go wrong w/ NFs. BTW, what kind of accuracy diff. are we talking about? If your rifle is capable of 1.5moa, you are fine for most African game. Anything under 1moa is pure gravy. Practice shooting off sticks, it's not as easy as it looks.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Palmer:
Has anyone used a Sierra Ph 180 grain on African plains game? If so, how did it work?

QUOTE]

I've used them a lot, and just have wonderful performance. Don't ask them to do what they are not designed to do, like deep penetration on Eland etc.

For Kudu, Blesbok etc, they worked perfectly.

fredj338,
The Sierras are about 1/4" center to center at best and 1/2" center to center at worst at 100 yds. for five shots.

The Northforks are about 3/4" so far. I am still experimenting with loads however and may get them better. I do realize that 3/4" is plenty good enough.

I have shot a lot of plains game with the Northforks and have great confidence in them however I really like the Sierras accuracy and its really tempting to use them on something other than paper...

Terry,
Thanks for telling me of your experience. What I am thinking of using the Sierras for is shooting leopard bait such as Impala and Springbok. I suspect they will be ok for those. The leopard itself would be with my trusty 375.

The problem is the nagging thought that while out looking for an Impala I might run into a really big Kudu or Gemsbok while I had the Sierras in the rifle.

Palmer, I would be tickled to get NF performance & .75moa. You have the best of both worlds in that load. If the NFs & SPH shoot to tha same poa, then go ahead & take some to try on smaller game. Good chance you won't see a trophy Kudu stalking impala or sringbok.